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On the final day of our visit to Bafut, we drove up into the green rolling hills of the Cameroon Highlands that surround the town to visit the Prespot tile factory. Conservation at the palace has so far focused on re-roofing the Queen's houses. As the most visible aspect of the intervention, the appearance of the new tiles is all-important. Only concrete tiles could be sourced in local markets, which were too heavy and not a bit like the originals.

Last week our Cambodian colleagues celebrated the beginning of Chum Bennh, or Ancestors Day, the most important holiday in Cambodia after the Khmer New Year. They celebrated at Angkor Wat with a small party before having three days off to worship their ancestors with their families.

On Friday and Saturday, September 17-18, 2010, <a href="/project/taos-pueblo">Taos Pueblo</a> commemorated the 40th anniversary of the return of Blue Lake and its surrounding land to the pueblo community. Amy Freitag, WMF's Director of US Programs, WMF consultant Mary Kay Judy, and I attended the events and met with the governor and secretary of Taos Pueblo to discuss WMF's project in collaboration with the Pueblo.

Behind the Achum Shrine are houses used by secret societies run by the priests in the traditional religion of the Bafut people. Each priest is responsible for a different spiritual realm. My colleague, Raymond Asombang, holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from London University and is an eminent professor in Cameroon.

I travelled recently to Bafut in Cameroon to inspect the ongoing conservation work at <a href="/project/bafut-palace">Bafut Palace</a>. Put on the Watch in 2006, the palace was in a critical condition. Many of the original tiled roofs had collapsed or were badly decayed.

During a May 2009 visit to New York, members of Citizens for Capit&oacute;lio, a Lisbon-based watchdog group which has campaigned for Teatro Capit&oacute;lio (1925-31) in Lisbon, took the opportunity to call in at World Monuments Fund, which had placed the building on their 2006 Watch list of endangered sites.

Despite an outcry from local and international presersvation groups, the Spanish bank CajaSol has broken ground on a 180-meter-high office tower in Sevilla. If built, the building, designed by Cesar Pelli, will overshadow Sevilla Cathedral's tower, which for 800 years has been the tallest structure in the city.

On July 15, 2010, the staff of WMF's New York headquarters had the opportunity to tour <a href="http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/">Brooklyn Bridge Park</a>, an 85-acre park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that is currently under construction along the Brooklyn waterfront. Our hosts for the afternoon were Ellen Ryan, Vice President for Strategic Partnerships at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, and Paul Seck, Senior Associate at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and the project manager for Brooklyn Bridge Park.